Census documenting U.S. Great Depression to be released:

Intimate details of 132 million people who lived through the 1930s will be disclosed as the U.S. government releases the 1940 census on April 2 to the public for the first time after 72 years of privacy protection lapses.

This will be a very interesting look back at the toughest time ever on record for America’s workforce.

I’m currently in Washington DC for the Natuonal Association of Workforce Boards Forum. Join our conversation on Twitter #NAWBForum.

Someone who isn’t afraid to put their right foot forward and speak up in situations were they may be the only one who stands up for their certain belief. A leader needs to be someone who is understanding but who can get things done.

The $1.6 Billion Woman, Staying on Message//

Sheryl Sandberg, Mark Zuckerberg’s No. 2, has helped steer Facebook, Inc. to its once-unimaginable height. Her message is about women and how, in her view, they must take responsibility for their careers and not blame men for holding them back.

Given that Ms. Sandberg is Facebook’s chief operating officer, and that all of Wall Street was hanging on last week’s news, you might think that she was absurdly off-topic. But Ms. Sandberg sees herself as more than an executive at one of the hottest companies around — more, too, than someone who will soon rank among the few self-made billionaires who are women. She sees herself as a role model for women in business and technology. In speeches, she often urges women to “keep your foot on the gas pedal,” and to aim high.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/business/sheryl-sandberg-of-facebook-staying-on-message.html?pagewanted=all

Goodbye, middle class

Nearly one in two Americans is now living on the lower end of the income scale, according to the Census Bureau. For a family of four that’s less than $45,000 a year. The following article takes a look at three families who are falling out of the middle class.

Leading Older Employees

As young professionals take on increased responsibility at office, they need to build management skills that allow them to work effectively with senior colleagues. When you’re young and you’re tasked with leading, the three most important things to keep in mind are as follows:
1. Be Confident
2. Be Open Minded
3. Solicit Feedback Regularly

Interesting read for all young professionals, from the Harvard Business Review.

The new (green) economy, according to Jeremy Rifkin:

How’s this for a disruptive model. Economist Jeremy Rifkin says in the future power will be green, cheap and distributed peer-to-peer. Imagine the internet, only for energy.

Here’s Rifkin’s vision: The Facebook generation seizes the initiative, tearing up conventional thinking about where energy comes from and how it’s delivered. They apply all their nous in sharing information and building seamless networks to create a new, resilient energy economy in its place, powered entirely by renewables – solar, wind, water and tidal, biomass and more besides. This will be nothing short of a new industrial revolution, says Rifkin, and its impacts will be as dramatic and sweeping as any that have gone before.

http://www.greenwisebusiness.co.uk/news/the-futures-lateral-the-new-green-economy-according-to-jeremy-rifkin-2978.aspx

“Great economic revolutions happen”, he says, “when new energy regimes emerge that facilitate more complex civilisations and more energy flow. In turn, they require communication revolutions to manage them. And when communication and energy revolutions come together, historically, they change the economic footprint.”

Jeremy Rifkin, maverick economist and adviser to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a clutch of EU leaders.

A CEO and a gentleman
People who believe that “nice guys finish last” probably don’t know Ken Chenault. The chairman and CEO of American Express built his career around being honest and likable, while remaining a tough competitor.

“Frankly, you can’t be a jerk and be successful in the service business for a long period of time,” he says. “When you’re in the service business, reputation is everything. Sometimes when you’re very successful, you become arrogant, and what I’ve tried to instill is a very strong sense of customer needs, respect for your colleagues, says Chenault.”

Changing the fortunes of America’s workforce: A human-capital challenge

Rising income dispersion in the United States and other advanced nations has become a source of concern. Since the early 1970s, incomes for the highest US earners have raced ahead, while those at the bottom of the income distribution have stood still and those in the middle barely increased. Strikingly, even in the current recession, this underlying trend is not reversing.

In an effort to provide a comprehensive, well-founded explanation to policymakers and other interested parties, the McKinsey Global Institute and McKinsey Social Sector Office have conducted a study of changes in income dispersion and their causes from 1991 to 2005, the height of the economic cycle. The study analyzed a broader, deeper data set than previous research in the area, making it the first attempt to estimate the contribution to rising dispersion of fundamental changes in the US economy’s mix of industries and occupations. Its findings show that redeveloping America’s human capital should be the focus of labor market policy coming out of the recession.

Interesting research, indeed.

RICHARD BRANSON: Be a leader — not a boss

A leader is very different from a boss. Many CEOs are bosses, not leaders, directing their employees from well behind the front lines. But sitting in the boardroom listening to even the most comprehensive reports from the front can never compare with your being there and seeing, hearing and understanding those interactions with your customers for yourself.

http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/Content.aspx?id=162636

If you aren’t frequently out there leading the charge with your employees, you simply cannot stay in touch with the realities of your business.